Miss O’Dell: Reviewed by Gabrielle Pantera. Rating: 3 stars
“I’ve wanted to write a book for years but there was a loyalty to the Beatles,” says Miss O’Dell author Chris O’Dell.
“It was understood that you didn’t talk about what you saw and heard, especially to the press. As I got older and got a better perspective on my life, I saw the value in writing about this wonderful, unique period of music history, including my battle with drugs and alcohol.”
Nicknamed the Pisces Apple Lady, O’Dell was an assistant at Apple Records and later a tour manager. The book Miss O’Dell tells her story of a life with rock-and-roll’s most famous names, including the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan. She has songs written about her and is an insider to all the craziness that went on behind the scenes in music. The loss, love, pain and the long hours of work are all here.
O’Dell was in the studio when the Beatles recorded The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. When Paul recorded Hey Jude, she sang in the chorus. She was close to Ringo, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan.
O’Dell is the “Miss O’Dell” of the George Harrison song. She’s “the woman down the hall” in the Joni Mitchell song Coyote, about a love triangle on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. She’s the “mystery woman” pictured on the back of the Rolling Stones album Exile on Main Street.
“The hardest thing was realizing how vulnerable and exposed I had to be in writing the book,” says O’Dell. “It required an honesty about who I was, to be truthful. I had to often look up tour dates to make sure I was right and get specific spellings. But, mostly this book was done from notes, journals, and my detailed memory.”
Chris O’Dell, with co-writer Kathy Ketcham, writes is a fascinating look into the lives of some of the biggest names in Rock-and-Roll. It has the insight of someone close to the stars. Chris O’Dell was just a girl who loved music and got the chance to be a part of history because she took a chance. Although the book does focus on the stars, more about what happened after she left the music industry, got sober and straightened out her life would have been interesting. She reveals much about others’ tragedies and triumphs, but leaves out some of her own.
Chris O’Dell was born in Muncie, Indiana. And her family moved to Keota, Oklahoma when she was 1 1/2 yrs old. O’Dell currently lives in Tucson, Arizona. O’Dell counsels those with addiction and other mental health issues and is a public speaker. “Hopefully, I’ll inspire someone to go after their dreams or look at their addictive behavior.”
Hardcover, 416 pages, Publisher: Touchstone, October 6, 2009, Language: English
ISBN: 9781416590934 $26
